NORTHERN SCENERY. 125 



covered in many parts with stones of amazing size. 

 Fierce winds, blowing for at least three quarters of 

 the year, occasion a degree of cold, unfelt in any 

 other portion of the globe; and during winter it is 

 so intense, that the snow which begins to fall in 

 October, and continues falling at intervals through 

 the winter, descends not as with us in gentle flakes, 

 but like the finest sand. Those who have the cou- 

 rage to winter in this inhospitable clime, often 

 find on waking that the blankets are covered with 

 hoar-frost from their congealed breath, and that the 

 bed-clothes are frozen to the wall. While the earth 

 is thus frost-bound, and covered with snow as with 

 a shroud, the heavens are gloriously adorned. Mock 

 suns and halos exhibit the colours of the rainbow, 

 and the aurora borealis spreads its dancing lights 

 across the vast concavity. The moon, too, shines 

 with a splendour unknown in more temperate por- 

 tions of the earth, and the stars are of a fiery red- 

 ness. Even in such parts as are comparatively 

 mild, the cold is still severe, and were it not for the 

 extensive forests of trees yielding berries, that ex- 

 tend for miles, no living creature could exist. But 

 these forests are inhabited by a variety of animals 

 and birds, who find in them both food and shelter. 

 They are clothed in the warmest fur, or have down 

 beneath their feathers ; and however rich or varied 

 may be their tints during the summer months, they 

 uniformly assume the livery of winter throughout 

 that rigorous season, when every thing both animate 

 and inanimate is white. Nor is this singular phe- 

 nomenon confined to the native animals of the 

 country; even dogs and cats brought from England to 



